Placing a Finger On the Groove

by Heart takes place in the space between the unknown and the known

by Heart takes place in a dream

by Heart was choreographed by Elinor Kleber Diggs and was commissioned by ARENA Dances for their fall show, DELUXE

by Heart Performers: Nieya Amezquita, Alex Arce, Non Edwards, Sarah McCullough, Timo Wagner

Elinor Kleber Diggs, currently based in Harlem, New York, is an interdisciplinary artist and choreographer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. They grew up training in dance at the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and at TU Dance Center. Elinor has been fortunate to show their work at Triskelion Arts, Bronx Music Hall, Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Gibney: Agnes Varis Theater, BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Pepátian’s APAP showcase in The Bronx, among others. Recently, Elinor was selected as the 2026/2027 Martha Hill Dance Fund MESH Fellowship Emerging Choreographer and was commissioned by ARENA Dances in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Past opportunities include the 2025 Baryshnikov Arts Fellowship at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, the CUNY Dance Initiative AiR Program at CUNY York, and the Jerome Early Career Residency at Anderson Center at Tower View in Minnesota. Elinor holds a BFA in Dance Performance with a concentration in composition from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College.

Links & Socials: by Heart Script | Elinor’s Website | @elinor.kd

Photo Credit: Dan Norman

Intro/Outro Music: The Warm Up - Jeff Swiff Featuring MPLSHOUSE

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Shadow on the Sun Chapter 1: Brotherhood is a study of friendship and the practice it takes to maintain a real connection. It focuses on what it means for men to show up for each other consistently—through effort, time, and shared experience.

This work is a practice of love, centering the six ingredients of love as defined by bell hooks: care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust. The piece explores these themes in action and how we learn to support one another and grow together over time.

Most men weren’t raised with a blueprint for maintaining connection, so we fall back on isolation because it’s easier than doing the work. Rather than telling a story, this duet offers a window into the practice of challenging that cycle: two men being fully present, committed to staying in the space together.

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Meridians is a movement collective using hip-hop as a vessel for emotional healing, collective release, and the redefinition of masculinity. Through performance, ritual, and storytelling, we embody love, vulnerability, and flow as pathways toward wholeness. Our work transforms the stage into sacred ground — where the body remembers, and the body releases.

Links & Socials: Meridians Website | @meridianmovementco | @bzychln

Photo Credit: Laura SukowateyIntro/Outro Music: The Warm Up - Jeff Swiff Featuring MPLSHOUSE

Comments or questions about the show? Click here to send them over.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onthegroove.substack.com

[If I Had the Chance] To Do It Again is a reflection on time travel, investigating why we are so interested in it, how we would use the capability if (and perhaps when) Physical Time Travel might become possible, and the human phenomenon of Mental Time Travel, a psychological capability often credited as a major contributor to our evolutionary leap. This piece considers our human fallibility and times apparent lack thereof, how - if time were more fallible - many of us would try to bend it to our will, and the value in navigating the ever-shifting balance of where our minds travel - past and future - while striving to experience the present.

This work was choreographed by Erinn Liebhard, a Twin Cities-based dance artist driven by the reflective and connective power of groove. Guided by this inspiration and a fondness for jazz and American social dance, she’s worked with creatives as varied as hip-hop dance theater artists Rennie Harris and the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers. In performance, she creates for and performs with her company Rhythmically Speaking, plays “Nerdette” for St. Paul Saints Baseball, and makes work for professional companies, colleges and high schools. Her creative works emphasize groove, interaction and improvisation, and are inspired by both social and concert dance movement while often driven by contemporary jazz music. In education, she’s a COMPAS Teaching Artist, is on faculty at several area universities and is an active writer and conference presenter. She is driven to connect to themselves, one another and the moment through rooted and innovative embodiment of groove.

Links & Socials: erinnliebhard.com | Rhythmically Speaking | CHILL Tickets | @erinnliebhard.danceartist | @RhythmicallySpeakingDance

Erinn’s Research Document | Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory

Photo Credit: Bill Cameron

Intro/Outro Music: The Warm Up - Jeff Swiff Featuring MPLSHOUSE

Comments or questions about the show? Click here to send them over.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onthegroove.substack.com

Welcome to the intro episode of Placing a Finger On the Groove! Come catch a glimpse of what this podcast might be all about with your host, Daniel Groove.

In the coming months, join Daniel as they interview Twin Cities choreographers and learn more about the work shaping our current-day dance scene and community.

Bio - Daniel Grove is a multidisciplinary movement artist, arts administrator, and life-long questioner. They graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a BA in Dance and a Certificate in Hip-Hop Studies, and became a credentialed Facilitator through Turning the Wheel, an organization that uses movement-based activities to foster communal connection and expression.

Upon returning to the Twin Cities, they led communal movement workshops for staff at Walker Art Center and co-facilitated CONTRIBUTION, a 6-week movement experiment to see what becomes possible when a group of people commit to dancing together for an hour per day. They have stage managed for a number of local projects, including TRACES (after Sophie Calle), presented by the Walker Art Center and From Tokyo to Brooklyn, presented by Movement Architecture at Northrop at the University of MN. Currently, they are a Transition Team Member of the MN Dance Force, Managing Director of Movement Architecture, and Co-Founder of DynAmic Dance Collective alongside Aileen Norris.

Find out more about DynAmic Dance Collective’s on their Instagram page: @dynamicdance.collective

Intro/Outro Music: The Warm Up - Jeff Swiff Featuring MPLSHOUSE

Comments or questions about the show? Click here to send them over.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onthegroove.substack.com